I have been consistently fishing my local river, but I had only been catching different kinds of fish as big as my hand. I had also been going out in muddy water with not much luck. Today the water had cleared so I decided to fish. I hooked into this little guy with an X-Rap. I caught several more smaller ones on Rage Tail Craws. I felt like a little boy catching my first fish again! In all the excitement I dropped my reel into the water, so if anyone as any recommendations on how I should care for my reel now I'd love to hear them. Also, is muddy water a turn off to smallies? This is the best day I've by far, also with the clearest water yet. Thanks for reading!

Congrats on your first smallie, that's a nice looking fish.  I haven't really seen them with coloring that light before.

Congrats on your first smallie, that's a nice looking fish. I haven't really seen them with coloring that light before.

Agreed...almost looks like a lmb

The smallmouths in my area look like that as well... there are ones with that coloring and ones with a darker coloring with a bluish-purple hue

Congrats man.  Smallmouth, IMO, are by far the funnest fish to catch.  Your reel should be ok, I know mine are in the water quite often.  Regular maintenance on them is a good thing though.  I would recommend using the manufacture's guide.  One tip I would give you, is that if you don't already, keep a good fish log.  Try to record all the data you can from every fishing trip.  I started doing that about 2 years ago and it seems my fishing has greatly improved.

Congratulations on your first smallmouth. I'm kinda partial to the smallies myself.

nice smallie, the coloring looks kinda light

very interesting, i like it.

Congratulations!

8-)

Congrats on your 1st! It's a beaut to me.